12/29 -- Hong Kong: Beijing quisling cops raid news outlet, abduct seven; The Real Pandemic Is Unchecked Government Power
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Thomas L. Knapp
Dec 29, 2021, 6:58:35 AM12/29/21
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 12/29/21
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https://liberty-intl.org/
Produced by the staff of Rational Review News Digest
https://news.rationalreview.com/
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Hong Kong: Beijing quisling cops raid news outlet, abduct seven
2) S&P 500 ends lower to snap four-day win streak; Dow extends rally
3) Belgium: Setback for regime as Council of State overturns COVID theater theatrics
4) US CDC sharply drops estimate of Omicron prevalence
5) Russia: Court orders closure of country's oldest human rights NGO
6) Biden considers Raskin for top enforcer of Fed's protection rackets
7) Germany: Anti-police-state protesters treat police like police usually treat them
8) Biden regime, House Capitol riot exploitation committee agree to sweep some Trump documents under the rug
9) India: Regime bans Mother Teresa charity from receiving funds from abroad
10) US, Russian regimes schedule talks for January 10
Today's Freedom Commentary:
11) The Real Pandemic Is Unchecked Government Power
12) Whip Producers Now
13) Covid and Corrupt Federal Statistics
14) Our Pugilistic Public School Year
15) What If Nature Were For Sale?
16) You Will Accept This Welfare Check Whether You Want It or Not
17) Individualism Rightly Understood
18) The Federal Judiciary: Independence Without Accountability?
19) Mindfulness Is What's Missing From the Political Arena
20) The Cost of Engaging With the Miserable
21) How International Aid Failed Africa and Made Poverty Worse
22) Gun Ownership Is Political Violence
23) Time to look inward: Not all of Iran's problems are caused by the West
24) Lunatic With a Plan: Erdogan and Turkey's Economic Woes
25) Lost Opportunity: How the Clinton Administration Started a Cold War With a Democratic Russia
26) The revolt against modernity
27) The Zoom Class Gets Covid
28) If You Haven't Researched Arguments Disputing A Western Narrative, You Don't Understand The Issue
29) RICO Illustrates One Way Leviathan Grows
30) Socialism and liberty, part 1
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
31) Free Talk Live, 12/28/21
32) Power Problems, 12/28/21
33) The Bryan Hyde Show, 12/28/21
34) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 12/28/21
35) Conflicts Of Interest, episode 205
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Hong Kong: Beijing quisling cops raid news outlet, abduct seven
Source: CNN
"Hong Kong pro-democracy media outlet Stand News has shut down after national security police raided its office and arrested seven people associated with the publication on Wednesday. It's yet another blow to diminishing press freedoms in the city. ... Steve Li Kwai-wah, senior superintendent of the Hong Kong police's National Security Department, said that the arrests were connected to multiple 'seditious' articles published by the outlet between July 2020 and November 2021. Li also said that police raided the news outlet's office in the city's Kwun Tong area, and froze about 61 million Hong Kong dollars ($7.8 million) worth of assets from the company. Some 200 police officers were involved in the newsroom raid, where they seized journalistic materials, according to a government statement earlier Wednesday." (12/29/21)
https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/28/media/hong-kong-media-stand-arrests-intl-hnk/index.html
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2) S&P 500 ends lower to snap four-day win streak; Dow extends rally
Source: MarketWatch
"U.S. stock indexes closed mostly lower Tuesday, with the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq Composite snapping a four-day winning streak, as some investors looked toward 2022 with optimism, despite record COVID-19 cases resulting from the spread of the omicron variant. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 95.83 points, or 0.3%, to end at 36,398.21, its second highest close ever and booking a fifth straight day of gains, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The S&P 500 slipped 4.84 points, or 0.1%, to close at 4,786.35, its second highest finish ever after setting an intraday record at 4,807.02. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 89.54 points, or 0.6%, to finish at 15,781.72." (12/28/21)
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/s-p-500-set-to-inch-toward-another-record-as-stock-futures-move-higher-11640690169
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3) Belgium: Setback for regime as Council of State overturns COVID theater theatrics
Source: News4Jax
"In a setback for the Belgian government, an advisory body on Tuesday suspended a Cabinet-ordered closure of the cultural sector -- saying that new coronavirus restrictions imposed on cinemas and theaters are unreasonable. Under new restrictions that took effect Sunday, movie houses, concert halls and art centers were ordered to shut their doors. Some stayed open in protest. The order came despite the assessment of the scientific committee advising the government that going to such places poses no extra risk to public health. In an emergency procedure, the Council of State ruled that the measures were 'not proportionate,' and didn't provide enough motives to 'understand why going to cultural sector performance venues was particularly dangerous for public health.' The Council of State is an advisory body that has legal powers to overturn government decisions it considers unlawful." (12/28/21)
https://www.news4jax.com/business/2021/12/28/setback-for-belgian-govt-as-coronavirus-measures-overturned/
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4) US CDC sharply drops estimate of Omicron prevalence
Source: Politico
"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention significantly revised its model of the breakdown of Covid-19 variants on Tuesday, estimating the Omicron strain accounted for about 58.6 percent of U.S. cases as of Dec. 25. The public health agency's previous estimate that the rapidly spreading variant accounted for 73.2 percent of cases nationwide on Dec. 18 is now revised down to 22.5 percent -- a significant drop that falls outside the agency's earlier 95 percent prediction interval, or likely range where future analysis will fall, of 34 to 94.9 percent of all cases. The agency said the disparity was due to the rate with which the highly transmissible Omicron spread." (12/28/21)
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/12/28/cdc-drops-omicron-prevalence-estimate-526210
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5) Russia: Court orders closure of country's oldest human rights NGO
Source: euronews [EU]
"Russia's Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that the country's oldest and most prominent human rights organization should be closed down -- a move that stirred up much public outrage and is the latest step in a months-long crackdown on rights activists, independent media, and opposition supporters. The Prosecutor General's Office last month petitioned the Supreme Court to revoke the legal status of Memorial, an international human rights group that rose to prominence for its studies of political repression in the Soviet Union ... The court on Tuesday ruled in favour of the prosecution, which charged at the hearing that Memorial 'creates a false image of the USSR as a terrorist state, whitewashes and rehabilitates Nazi criminals,' claiming that the list of dissidents contains 'Nazi offenders with blood of Soviet citizens on their hands.'" (12/28/21)
https://www.euronews.com/2021/12/28/another-foreign-agent-russian-court-orders-closure-of-country-s-oldest-human-rights-ngo-me
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6) Biden considers Raskin for top enforcer of Fed's protection rackets
Source: Reuters
"U.S. President Joe Biden is considering former Federal Reserve Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin to lead regulation and supervision at the central bank as part of a slate of three nominees to its Board of Governors, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. Raskin, who also served in the Treasury Department in the Obama administration, could bring a tougher regulatory profile to the country's most powerful bank oversight role, a position recently vacated by Randal Quarles, a Donald Trump appointee who riled progressives with a more Wall Street-friendly approach." (12/28/21)
https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/biden-considers-raskin-top-fed-banking-regulator-wsj-2021-12-28/
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7) Germany: Anti-police-state protesters treat police like police usually treat them
Source: CNN
"Protesters tossed bottles and fireworks at police in eastern Germany on Monday night in some of the most violent demonstrations against public health [sic] measures in Europe since the Covid-19 pandemic began. Hundreds of people gathered in various cities and towns on Sunday and Monday to voice their opposition to stricter social distancing rules that went into effect Tuesday across Germany. ... Germany earlier this month put in place a nationwide lockdown for unvaccinated people, banning them from accessing all but the most essential businesses. New Chancellor Olaf Scholz supports mandatory vaccinations and wants a law drafted that could be voted on by the parliament in late February. Parliament is due to meet in early January to begin discussions." (12/28/21)
https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/28/europe/europe-covid-germany-restrictions-intl/index.html
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8) Biden regime, House Capitol riot exploitation committee agree to sweep some Trump documents under the rug
Source: ABC News
"The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 [riot] at the Capitol has agreed to defer its request for hundreds of pages of records from the Trump administration, bending to the wishes of the Biden White House. The deferral is in response to concerns by the Biden White House that releasing all the Trump administration documents sought by the committee could compromise national security and executive privilege. President Joe Biden has repeatedly rejected former President Donald Trump's blanket efforts to cite executive privilege to block the release of documents surrounding that day. But Biden's White House is still working with the committee to shield some documents from being turned over. Trump is appealing to the Supreme Court to try to block the National Archives and Records Administration, which maintains custody of the documents from his time in office, from giving them to the committee." (12/28/21)
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/white-house-jan-committee-agree-shield-documents-81970525
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9) India: Regime bans Mother Teresa charity from receiving funds from abroad
Source: The Guardian [UK]
"The Indian government has blocked Mother Teresa's charity from receiving funds from abroad, just days after it faced a police investigation for 'hurting religious sentiments of Hindus' amid rising intolerance towards Christians in India. The Missionaries of Charity, which was started by Mother Teresa in 1950 and runs a network of shelters across India led by nuns to help the poor, was denied the licence to continue to receive funds from abroad, cutting the charity off from vital resources. ... The rejection of the application comes less than two weeks after Hindu hardliners accused the charity of carrying out forced conversions of Hindus to Christianity in a home for girls it runs in Vadodara in the state of Gujarat. ... A spokesperson for the Missionaries of Charity rejected all the allegations as unfounded." (12/28/21)
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/dec/28/india-bans-mother-teresa-charity-from-receiving-funds-from-abroad
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10) US, Russian regimes schedule talks for January 10
Source: Deutsche Welle [Germany]
"The United States and Russia are set to hold dialogue on nuclear arms control and tensions over a military build up around Ukraine on January 10, a White House official said on Monday. 'The United States looks forward to engaging with Russia,' a spokesman for the National Security Council told the media. 'When we sit down to talk, Russia can put its concerns on the table and we will put our concerns on the table with Russia's activities as well,' the spokesperson said. The Russia Foreign Ministry on Tuesday confirmed the planned talks, the RIA news agency reported. ... Russia and NATO are also expected to meet on January 12, while a broader meeting of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is scheduled to be held on January 13, the White House spokesperson said." (12/28/21)
https://www.dw.com/en/us-and-russia-to-hold-talks-on-january-10-official-says/a-60270723
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
11) The Real Pandemic Is Unchecked Government Power
Source: Cafe Hayek
by Don Boudreaux
"As Messrs. Henderson and Hooper note, those who attempt to justify Covid restrictions by crying 'externalities!' consistently fail to consider that the individuals best positioned to take precautions against Covid are not necessarily everyone in the general population but, instead, those relatively few persons who are most vulnerable to the disease or who are especially frightened of it. But there is one very real externality on the loose today, and it's one that the pro-lockdown and pro-vaccine-mandate crowd utterly ignore. It's the unprecedented expansion of discretionary power in the hands of government officials. No negative externality -- not even the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus -- is as insidious and as inescapable as is the power that so many government officials have recently grasped to unilaterally and indefinitely disrupt familial, social, educational, and commercial interactions." (12/28/21)
https://cafehayek.com/2021/12/the-real-pandemic-is-uncheck-government-power.html
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12) Whip Producers Now
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
"The Biden administration is siccing agencies like the Federal Trade Commission, Department of Agriculture, and the Federal Maritime Commission onto the producers of stuff who have recently dared to raise prices. Stuff like gas. Higher prices at the pump <em>must</em> be an oil-company conspiracy. It has nothing to do with (and don't even think it!) governmental actions that impede production, including shutting down the Keystone oil pipeline on Biden's first day in office or calling a halt to new oil leases on public lands. Etcetera. Nothing to do with mammoth expansion of the supply of money and credit to facilitate trillion-dollar government spending sprees. In case you hadn't noticed, meat costs more, too. So obviously that must be the fault of malicious meatpackers. Rest assured that beef price inflation is utterly unrelated to pandemic-policy-induced labor shortages and delays. Or to any recent increase in efficiency-impairing trucking regulations." (12/28/21)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2021/12/28/whip-producers-now/
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13) Covid and Corrupt Federal Statistics
Source: JimBovard.com
by James Bovard
"Federal agencies don't count what politicians don't want to know. President Biden and other Democrats continuously invoke 'science and data' to sanctify all their Covid-19 mandates and policies, but the same shenanigans and willful omissions have characterized Covid data. During his update on his Winter Covid Campaign on Tuesday, President Biden declared, 'Almost everyone who has died from COVID-19 in the past many months has been unvaccinated.' This was true from the start of the pandemic in early 2020, until the vaccines' efficacy began failing badly in recent months. Oregon officially classifies roughly a quarter of its Covid fatalities since August as 'vaccine breakthrough deaths.' In Illinois, roughly 30 percent of Covid fatalities have occurred among fully vaccinated individuals. ... Honestly recognizing the limits of vaccines could be fatal to Biden's push for compulsory vaccinations. The same policymakers who claim to be guided by data have little or no idea how many Americans have been hit by Covid." (12/28/21)
https://jimbovard.com/blog/2021/12/28/covid-and-corrupt-federal-statistics/
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14) Our Pugilistic Public School Year
Source: Cato Institute
by Neal McCluskey
"If 2021 has felt like the angriest education year you can remember, that is probably because it has been. But while the temperature has been especially feverish, the root problem is old: public schooling, which forces diverse people to fund, and de facto attend, government‐controlled schools." (12/28/21)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/our-pugilistic-public-school-year
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15) What If Nature Were For Sale?
Source: Heartland Institute
by Greg Walcher
"The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) recently announced the launch of a new 'asset class,' one whose members will be referred to as 'Natural Asset Companies.' ... The Intrinsic Exchange Group further explained that NACs will give owners the ability to convert 'nature's value' into capital, which will provide money 'to power a sustainable future.' They estimate the value of the 'global ecosystem services market' at $125 trillion annually, including areas like carbon sequestration (forests), biodiversity (wildlife), and clean water. We all know the importance of clean water, we want healthy wildlife and plant populations, and we understand the value of forests. But how exactly do you put a value on that, and how does Wall Street make money from it?" (12/28/21)
https://blog.heartland.org/2021/12/what-if-nature-were-for-sale/
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16) You Will Accept This Welfare Check Whether You Want It or Not
Source: Show-Me Institute
by David Stokes
"For people like me, who believe that the welfare system has a role but also has negative effects, the Section 8 program is far down on the list of programs to object to. It helps people who need housing by working with the private sector in a voluntary capacity. Landlords can choose to participate in it or not, according to federal rules. But that is not good enough for certain Missouri cities that won't be content until we are all forced onto the dole. Maplewood is the latest city to consider passing a 'source-of-income' law compelling landlords who operate in that city to accept Section 8 housing vouchers as payment. It would be illegal to decline to rent to people in the program, even though it is a federal program and federal law allows landlords to choose to participate or not." (12/28/21)
https://showmeinstitute.org/blog/regulation/you-will-accept-this-welfare-check-whether-you-want-it-or-not/
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17) Individualism Rightly Understood
Source: American Institute for Economic Research
by Garreth Bloor
"In Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis, Ludwig von Mises lays out the case against socialism and its varying forms. In focusing on human persons and their wide-ranging motives, Mises' methodology set him apart in 1922. Nearly a century later, the majority of mainstream economists still fail to appreciate the degree to which their discipline ought to rest on a more sophisticated view of human nature. Even as we might wish him to deploy a more nuanced morality in service of his arguments, Mises nonetheless helps us see the discipline's ongoing failure to comprehend the complexity of human action and the inspiration for socialist dreams. Mises asserted praxeology as the foundation of all the social sciences 'resting on the fundamental axiom that individual human beings act, that is, on the primordial fact that individuals engage in conscious actions toward chosen goals.'" (12/28/21)
https://www.aier.org/article/individualism-rightly-understood/
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18) The Federal Judiciary: Independence Without Accountability?
Source: Tenth Amendment Center
by Bob Fiedler
"Judicial supremacy was not dictated by the Constitution, it was permitted under the Constitution because there was no power that could prevent the institution with the last say -- the Supreme Court -- from telling the other branches of government what they were allowed, or not allowed, to do. In short, Brutus contended, judicial supremacy was a direct consequence of the failure of the Framers to institute some sort of checks and balances on the Supreme Court as had been instituted on all other parts of the federal government." (12/28/21)
https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2021/12/28/the-federal-judiciary-independence-without-accountability/
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19) Mindfulness Is What's Missing From the Political Arena
Source: Reason
by Aaron Ross Powell
"Perhaps the least controversial thing you can say about American politics is that it's awful and getting worse. Americans were divided before Trump, but his four years in office supercharged partisan animosity. Everyone has a theory about what's to blame for it. Both the left and the right like to point to social media, albeit for different reasons. Both blame traditional media as well, whether it's 'fake news' or Fox News. Both agree that politics is broken because the other guys broke it. Social media do highlight and promote political conflict and grandstanding. Newspapers do reflect the biases of their staffs. Cable news has largely replaced sober journalism with posturing-as-entertainment shows similar to professional wrestling. But these are symptoms, not causes. The deeper problem with American politics is how we think about it and how we put it to use." (12/28/21)
https://reason.com/2021/12/28/mindfulness-is-whats-missing-from-the-political-arena/
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20) The Cost of Engaging With the Miserable
Source: The Atlantic
by Charlie Warzel
"On the doom machine, feeling helpless and hopeless is easier than ever. Our politics, institutions, and reality itself seem fractured. Perhaps the only salve is to fight on the doom machine over who's to blame. Inevitably, this makes us feel worse instead of better. So why do we keep doing it? It seems that many of the extremely online are drawn to the doom, and that should make us concerned about the health and future of our public digital spaces. When journalists and academics talk about the morass of hate and lies online, they tend to focus on tech platforms, rightfully so. The platforms are immensely powerful, and their design can encourage radicalization and the spread of conspiracy theories, amplifying the most toxic forces in our culture. But online garbage (whether political and scientific misinformation or racist memes) is also created because there's an audience for it." (12/28/21)
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/12/twitter-facebook-misery-misinformation/621073/
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21) How International Aid Failed Africa and Made Poverty Worse
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Emmanuel Rincon
"The Zambian economist, Dambisa Moyo, wrote a book -- Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa -- to denounce how the hypocrisy of political correctness did nothing but continue to impoverish the African continent through international aid. ... In 1990 there were 280 million people living in extreme poverty in Africa; today that figure exceeds 430 million. ... In contrast to the situation in Africa, according to the World Bank, there were 1.9 billion people in extreme poverty worldwide in 1990, and today, that figure has decreased to 736 million people; in other words, while more than 1.1 billion people worldwide have emerged from extreme poverty in the last 30 years, the opposite trend has occurred in Africa, where the figure has increased by at least 150 million people." (12/28/21)
https://fee.org/articles/how-international-aid-failed-africa-and-made-poverty-worse/
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22) Gun Ownership Is Political Violence
Source: The American Conservative
by Andrew Cuff
"One of my neighbors has a bumper sticker: 'The 2nd Amendment isn't for hunting.' He's correct as a matter of constitutional law -- the Bill of Rights affirms the right to private gun ownership and, in effect, creates a form of distributed sovereignty that prevents the state from having a monopoly on force. In case after case, the Supreme Court has struck down attempts to limit this right, and seems poised to further expand gun rights next year. But pretending gun ownership is a privilege granted by government cedes too much ground. The right must unapologetically embrace the substance of the left's complaint that the 2nd Amendment endorses violence as pillar of American politics." (12/28/21)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/gun-ownership-is-political-violence/
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23) Time to look inward: Not all of Iran's problems are caused by the West
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Shireen Hunter
"Iran's leaders, especially the hardliners who have had the last word in all Iran's domestic and foreign policies, attribute their problems to the impact of U.S. sanctions. Clearly, sanctions have had a devastating effect on Iran's economy, while failing to produce change either in the regime or its behavior. Indeed, Washington has never been well-disposed towards Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and its policies towards Tehran have often been unwise and counter-productive. But Iran's hardliners never ask whether Iran's behavior might have contributed to U.S. hostility. Yet, an objective observer will recognize that their mutual enmity and its negative consequences for Iran have resulted in part from major flaws in the foundational principles of Tehran's foreign policy." (12/28/21)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2021/12/28/time-to-look-inward-not-all-of-irans-problems-are-caused-by-the-west/
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24) Lunatic With a Plan: Erdogan and Turkey's Economic Woes
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Tom Luongo
"Since the first assault on Turkey's finances in 2018, which I wrote about multiple times ... I've been the lone voice telling everyone that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a lunatic but he's a lunatic with a plan. That plan is to de-dollarize the economy of a valuable member of NATO geostrategically. Since the first shots across the bow by the Trump administration at Erdogan's toying with those powers east of the Bosporus (Russia, China and Iran) the Turkish lira has been the primary mode of attack against Erdogan." (12/28/21)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/lunatic-with-a-plan-erdogan-and-turkeys-economic-woes/
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25) Lost Opportunity: How the Clinton Administration Started a Cold War With a Democratic Russia
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ted Galen Carpenter
"There is little dispute that relations between the United States and Russia are now so hostile that they amount to a second cold war. The current situation is such a depressing contrast to the high hopes for a cordial bilateral relationship and the emergence of a stable, peaceful, and cooperative Europe that marked the demise of the Soviet Union three decades ago. Most Americans blame Moscow, but the United States and its NATO allies are largely responsible for the onset of the current, dangerous confrontation." (12/28/21)
https://original.antiwar.com/ted_galen_carpenter/2021/12/27/lost-opportunity-how-the-clinton-administration-started-a-cold-war-with-a-democratic-russia/
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26) The revolt against modernity
Source: spiked
by Brendan O'Neill
"I mainly feel sorry for those who still labour under the delusion that environmentalism is a radical worldview. Those who believe that warning of End Times as a consequence of ruthless capitalist excess is a socialist position. Those who think that wringing one's hands over the grotesque 'footprint' marauding humankind has left on this allegedly once-pristine planet is a good way to indict the globalist elites. Because 2021, with COP26 and all the rest, surely proved that the opposite is the case. It surely confirmed, beyond all reasonable doubt, that green thinking is in truth the new ideology of the ruling class, and that it has become a justification for rewinding modernity and lowering the aspirations of humankind." (12/28/21)
https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/12/28/the-revolt-against-modernity/
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27) The Zoom Class Gets Covid
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Jeffrey A Tucker
"The initial lockdowns had a strong class-based component. The working classes were assigned the job of delivering groceries, tending to the sick, driving the trucks filled with goods, keeping the lights on, and keeping the fuel running. The professional class, among whom were the people who pushed lockdowns in the name of disease avoidance/suppression, were assigned the job of staying home in their pajamas and staying safe. ... So it now seems obvious to me. This whole disaster would finally come to an end (or at least the end would begin) when it became obvious that the great strategy of class division and demarcation would fail to protect the Zoom class from infection. That day has finally arrived, with cases soaring in many parts of the country and hitting everyone of every class, whether they are being 'careful' and adhering to the 'mitigation measures" or not.'" (12/27/21)
https://brownstone.org/articles/the-zoom-class-gets-covid/
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28) If You Haven't Researched Arguments Disputing A Western Narrative, You Don't Understand The Issue
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
"Lately when people react with shock and indignation that I would dare to dispute a claim made by the western political/media class about an empire-targeted government, I've taken to simply asking them what reading they've done on the other side of the issue. What are some articles they've read arguing against the official western narrative about that government? ... Russia is engaging in aggressive provocations. Assad is using chemical weapons. There's a genocide in Xinjiang. Iran is developing nuclear weapons. Maduro is deliberately starving his people. Whatever's the Official Imperial Line of the Day about the Official Bad Guy of the Day. What I've found interesting about this exercise is that while I would've correctly predicted that those questioned had done zero research into the opposing viewpoints of the issue they're commenting on, I would probably not have predicted the brazenness with which they'll admit it." (12/27/21)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/12/27/if-you-havent-researched-arguments-disputing-a-western-narrative-you-dont-understand-the-issue/
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29) RICO Illustrates One Way Leviathan Grows
Source: EconLog
by Pierre Lemieux
"Like many other laws if not most laws, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) has been used for purposes far different from its professed original goal. Like other ways in which the state tends to grow into Leviathan, this is not a random event or a manifestation of the supposed 'law of unintended consequences.'" (12/27/21)
https://www.econlib.org/rico-illustrates-one-way-leviathan-grows/
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30) Socialism and liberty, part 1
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton
"We know that many Americans -- even some friends and neighbors -- love the idea of socialism. We know that others fear, hate, and oppose socialism. How does that fit in with the ideal of liberty? Of living free? But what is socialism? When you ask people what is it, you get all kinds of answers. And all kinds of reasons for their advocacy for or against it. Let's take a few minutes and see if we can sort this out and understand how it impacts our liberty and our freedoms." (12/27/21)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2021/12/27/socialism-and-liberty-part-1/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
31) Free Talk Live, 12/28/21
Source: Free Talk Live
"Delta Karen spits on 80 year old man for not wearing a mask :: Pharmacist doesn't have information on the Covid vaccine :: Free bus fare in Albuquerque :: Way too much conversation about traffic lights :: Employers connecting with employees :: The new Matrix movie :: Show: 2021-12-28 Aria, Ian." [Flash audio or MP3] (12/28/21)
https://soundcloud.com/freetalklive/free-talk-live-2021-12-28
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32) Power Problems, 12/28/21
Source: Cato Institute
"Quantum Mind and Social Science." [various formats] (12/28/21)
https://www.cato.org/multimedia/power-problems/quantum-mind-social-science
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33) The Bryan Hyde Show, 12/28/21
Source: The Bryan Hyde Show
"Eric Peters from Eric Peters Autos joins me for a year-end retrospective. We talk about the good and bad of 2021 and what to watch for in 2022." [various formats] (12/28/21)
https://thebryanhydeshow.podbean.com/e/2021-december-28-the-bryan-hyde-show-hour-one/
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34) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 12/28/21
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
"Biden Surrenders on Covid -- Can We End Federal Mandates Now?" [Flash video] (12/28/21)
http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/biden-surrenders-on-covid-can-we-end-federal-mandates-now
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35) Conflicts Of Interest, episode 205
Source: Libertarian Institute
"Biden's Failures on Covid and Yemen." [various formats] (12/27/21)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/kyle/coi-205-bidens-failures-on-covid-and-yemen/
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Hong Kong: Beijing quisling cops raid news outlet, abduct seven
2) S&P 500 ends lower to snap four-day win streak; Dow extends rally
3) Belgium: Setback for regime as Council of State overturns COVID theater theatrics
4) US CDC sharply drops estimate of Omicron prevalence
5) Russia: Court orders closure of country's oldest human rights NGO
6) Biden considers Raskin for top enforcer of Fed's protection rackets
7) Germany: Anti-police-state protesters treat police like police usually treat them
8) Biden regime, House Capitol riot exploitation committee agree to sweep some Trump documents under the rug
9) India: Regime bans Mother Teresa charity from receiving funds from abroad
10) US, Russian regimes schedule talks for January 10
Today's Freedom Commentary:
11) The Real Pandemic Is Unchecked Government Power
12) Whip Producers Now
13) Covid and Corrupt Federal Statistics
14) Our Pugilistic Public School Year
15) What If Nature Were For Sale?
16) You Will Accept This Welfare Check Whether You Want It or Not
17) Individualism Rightly Understood
18) The Federal Judiciary: Independence Without Accountability?
19) Mindfulness Is What's Missing From the Political Arena
20) The Cost of Engaging With the Miserable
21) How International Aid Failed Africa and Made Poverty Worse
22) Gun Ownership Is Political Violence
23) Time to look inward: Not all of Iran's problems are caused by the West
24) Lunatic With a Plan: Erdogan and Turkey's Economic Woes
25) Lost Opportunity: How the Clinton Administration Started a Cold War With a Democratic Russia
26) The revolt against modernity
27) The Zoom Class Gets Covid
28) If You Haven't Researched Arguments Disputing A Western Narrative, You Don't Understand The Issue
29) RICO Illustrates One Way Leviathan Grows
30) Socialism and liberty, part 1
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
31) Free Talk Live, 12/28/21
32) Power Problems, 12/28/21
33) The Bryan Hyde Show, 12/28/21
34) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 12/28/21
35) Conflicts Of Interest, episode 205
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Hong Kong: Beijing quisling cops raid news outlet, abduct seven
Source: CNN
"Hong Kong pro-democracy media outlet Stand News has shut down after national security police raided its office and arrested seven people associated with the publication on Wednesday. It's yet another blow to diminishing press freedoms in the city. ... Steve Li Kwai-wah, senior superintendent of the Hong Kong police's National Security Department, said that the arrests were connected to multiple 'seditious' articles published by the outlet between July 2020 and November 2021. Li also said that police raided the news outlet's office in the city's Kwun Tong area, and froze about 61 million Hong Kong dollars ($7.8 million) worth of assets from the company. Some 200 police officers were involved in the newsroom raid, where they seized journalistic materials, according to a government statement earlier Wednesday." (12/29/21)
https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/28/media/hong-kong-media-stand-arrests-intl-hnk/index.html
-----
2) S&P 500 ends lower to snap four-day win streak; Dow extends rally
Source: MarketWatch
"U.S. stock indexes closed mostly lower Tuesday, with the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq Composite snapping a four-day winning streak, as some investors looked toward 2022 with optimism, despite record COVID-19 cases resulting from the spread of the omicron variant. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 95.83 points, or 0.3%, to end at 36,398.21, its second highest close ever and booking a fifth straight day of gains, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The S&P 500 slipped 4.84 points, or 0.1%, to close at 4,786.35, its second highest finish ever after setting an intraday record at 4,807.02. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 89.54 points, or 0.6%, to finish at 15,781.72." (12/28/21)
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/s-p-500-set-to-inch-toward-another-record-as-stock-futures-move-higher-11640690169
-----
3) Belgium: Setback for regime as Council of State overturns COVID theater theatrics
Source: News4Jax
"In a setback for the Belgian government, an advisory body on Tuesday suspended a Cabinet-ordered closure of the cultural sector -- saying that new coronavirus restrictions imposed on cinemas and theaters are unreasonable. Under new restrictions that took effect Sunday, movie houses, concert halls and art centers were ordered to shut their doors. Some stayed open in protest. The order came despite the assessment of the scientific committee advising the government that going to such places poses no extra risk to public health. In an emergency procedure, the Council of State ruled that the measures were 'not proportionate,' and didn't provide enough motives to 'understand why going to cultural sector performance venues was particularly dangerous for public health.' The Council of State is an advisory body that has legal powers to overturn government decisions it considers unlawful." (12/28/21)
https://www.news4jax.com/business/2021/12/28/setback-for-belgian-govt-as-coronavirus-measures-overturned/
-----
4) US CDC sharply drops estimate of Omicron prevalence
Source: Politico
"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention significantly revised its model of the breakdown of Covid-19 variants on Tuesday, estimating the Omicron strain accounted for about 58.6 percent of U.S. cases as of Dec. 25. The public health agency's previous estimate that the rapidly spreading variant accounted for 73.2 percent of cases nationwide on Dec. 18 is now revised down to 22.5 percent -- a significant drop that falls outside the agency's earlier 95 percent prediction interval, or likely range where future analysis will fall, of 34 to 94.9 percent of all cases. The agency said the disparity was due to the rate with which the highly transmissible Omicron spread." (12/28/21)
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/12/28/cdc-drops-omicron-prevalence-estimate-526210
-----
5) Russia: Court orders closure of country's oldest human rights NGO
Source: euronews [EU]
"Russia's Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that the country's oldest and most prominent human rights organization should be closed down -- a move that stirred up much public outrage and is the latest step in a months-long crackdown on rights activists, independent media, and opposition supporters. The Prosecutor General's Office last month petitioned the Supreme Court to revoke the legal status of Memorial, an international human rights group that rose to prominence for its studies of political repression in the Soviet Union ... The court on Tuesday ruled in favour of the prosecution, which charged at the hearing that Memorial 'creates a false image of the USSR as a terrorist state, whitewashes and rehabilitates Nazi criminals,' claiming that the list of dissidents contains 'Nazi offenders with blood of Soviet citizens on their hands.'" (12/28/21)
https://www.euronews.com/2021/12/28/another-foreign-agent-russian-court-orders-closure-of-country-s-oldest-human-rights-ngo-me
-----
6) Biden considers Raskin for top enforcer of Fed's protection rackets
Source: Reuters
"U.S. President Joe Biden is considering former Federal Reserve Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin to lead regulation and supervision at the central bank as part of a slate of three nominees to its Board of Governors, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. Raskin, who also served in the Treasury Department in the Obama administration, could bring a tougher regulatory profile to the country's most powerful bank oversight role, a position recently vacated by Randal Quarles, a Donald Trump appointee who riled progressives with a more Wall Street-friendly approach." (12/28/21)
https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/biden-considers-raskin-top-fed-banking-regulator-wsj-2021-12-28/
-----
7) Germany: Anti-police-state protesters treat police like police usually treat them
Source: CNN
"Protesters tossed bottles and fireworks at police in eastern Germany on Monday night in some of the most violent demonstrations against public health [sic] measures in Europe since the Covid-19 pandemic began. Hundreds of people gathered in various cities and towns on Sunday and Monday to voice their opposition to stricter social distancing rules that went into effect Tuesday across Germany. ... Germany earlier this month put in place a nationwide lockdown for unvaccinated people, banning them from accessing all but the most essential businesses. New Chancellor Olaf Scholz supports mandatory vaccinations and wants a law drafted that could be voted on by the parliament in late February. Parliament is due to meet in early January to begin discussions." (12/28/21)
https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/28/europe/europe-covid-germany-restrictions-intl/index.html
-----
8) Biden regime, House Capitol riot exploitation committee agree to sweep some Trump documents under the rug
Source: ABC News
"The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 [riot] at the Capitol has agreed to defer its request for hundreds of pages of records from the Trump administration, bending to the wishes of the Biden White House. The deferral is in response to concerns by the Biden White House that releasing all the Trump administration documents sought by the committee could compromise national security and executive privilege. President Joe Biden has repeatedly rejected former President Donald Trump's blanket efforts to cite executive privilege to block the release of documents surrounding that day. But Biden's White House is still working with the committee to shield some documents from being turned over. Trump is appealing to the Supreme Court to try to block the National Archives and Records Administration, which maintains custody of the documents from his time in office, from giving them to the committee." (12/28/21)
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/white-house-jan-committee-agree-shield-documents-81970525
-----
9) India: Regime bans Mother Teresa charity from receiving funds from abroad
Source: The Guardian [UK]
"The Indian government has blocked Mother Teresa's charity from receiving funds from abroad, just days after it faced a police investigation for 'hurting religious sentiments of Hindus' amid rising intolerance towards Christians in India. The Missionaries of Charity, which was started by Mother Teresa in 1950 and runs a network of shelters across India led by nuns to help the poor, was denied the licence to continue to receive funds from abroad, cutting the charity off from vital resources. ... The rejection of the application comes less than two weeks after Hindu hardliners accused the charity of carrying out forced conversions of Hindus to Christianity in a home for girls it runs in Vadodara in the state of Gujarat. ... A spokesperson for the Missionaries of Charity rejected all the allegations as unfounded." (12/28/21)
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/dec/28/india-bans-mother-teresa-charity-from-receiving-funds-from-abroad
-----
10) US, Russian regimes schedule talks for January 10
Source: Deutsche Welle [Germany]
"The United States and Russia are set to hold dialogue on nuclear arms control and tensions over a military build up around Ukraine on January 10, a White House official said on Monday. 'The United States looks forward to engaging with Russia,' a spokesman for the National Security Council told the media. 'When we sit down to talk, Russia can put its concerns on the table and we will put our concerns on the table with Russia's activities as well,' the spokesperson said. The Russia Foreign Ministry on Tuesday confirmed the planned talks, the RIA news agency reported. ... Russia and NATO are also expected to meet on January 12, while a broader meeting of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is scheduled to be held on January 13, the White House spokesperson said." (12/28/21)
https://www.dw.com/en/us-and-russia-to-hold-talks-on-january-10-official-says/a-60270723
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
11) The Real Pandemic Is Unchecked Government Power
Source: Cafe Hayek
by Don Boudreaux
"As Messrs. Henderson and Hooper note, those who attempt to justify Covid restrictions by crying 'externalities!' consistently fail to consider that the individuals best positioned to take precautions against Covid are not necessarily everyone in the general population but, instead, those relatively few persons who are most vulnerable to the disease or who are especially frightened of it. But there is one very real externality on the loose today, and it's one that the pro-lockdown and pro-vaccine-mandate crowd utterly ignore. It's the unprecedented expansion of discretionary power in the hands of government officials. No negative externality -- not even the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus -- is as insidious and as inescapable as is the power that so many government officials have recently grasped to unilaterally and indefinitely disrupt familial, social, educational, and commercial interactions." (12/28/21)
https://cafehayek.com/2021/12/the-real-pandemic-is-uncheck-government-power.html
-----
12) Whip Producers Now
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
"The Biden administration is siccing agencies like the Federal Trade Commission, Department of Agriculture, and the Federal Maritime Commission onto the producers of stuff who have recently dared to raise prices. Stuff like gas. Higher prices at the pump <em>must</em> be an oil-company conspiracy. It has nothing to do with (and don't even think it!) governmental actions that impede production, including shutting down the Keystone oil pipeline on Biden's first day in office or calling a halt to new oil leases on public lands. Etcetera. Nothing to do with mammoth expansion of the supply of money and credit to facilitate trillion-dollar government spending sprees. In case you hadn't noticed, meat costs more, too. So obviously that must be the fault of malicious meatpackers. Rest assured that beef price inflation is utterly unrelated to pandemic-policy-induced labor shortages and delays. Or to any recent increase in efficiency-impairing trucking regulations." (12/28/21)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2021/12/28/whip-producers-now/
-----
13) Covid and Corrupt Federal Statistics
Source: JimBovard.com
by James Bovard
"Federal agencies don't count what politicians don't want to know. President Biden and other Democrats continuously invoke 'science and data' to sanctify all their Covid-19 mandates and policies, but the same shenanigans and willful omissions have characterized Covid data. During his update on his Winter Covid Campaign on Tuesday, President Biden declared, 'Almost everyone who has died from COVID-19 in the past many months has been unvaccinated.' This was true from the start of the pandemic in early 2020, until the vaccines' efficacy began failing badly in recent months. Oregon officially classifies roughly a quarter of its Covid fatalities since August as 'vaccine breakthrough deaths.' In Illinois, roughly 30 percent of Covid fatalities have occurred among fully vaccinated individuals. ... Honestly recognizing the limits of vaccines could be fatal to Biden's push for compulsory vaccinations. The same policymakers who claim to be guided by data have little or no idea how many Americans have been hit by Covid." (12/28/21)
https://jimbovard.com/blog/2021/12/28/covid-and-corrupt-federal-statistics/
-----
14) Our Pugilistic Public School Year
Source: Cato Institute
by Neal McCluskey
"If 2021 has felt like the angriest education year you can remember, that is probably because it has been. But while the temperature has been especially feverish, the root problem is old: public schooling, which forces diverse people to fund, and de facto attend, government‐controlled schools." (12/28/21)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/our-pugilistic-public-school-year
-----
15) What If Nature Were For Sale?
Source: Heartland Institute
by Greg Walcher
"The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) recently announced the launch of a new 'asset class,' one whose members will be referred to as 'Natural Asset Companies.' ... The Intrinsic Exchange Group further explained that NACs will give owners the ability to convert 'nature's value' into capital, which will provide money 'to power a sustainable future.' They estimate the value of the 'global ecosystem services market' at $125 trillion annually, including areas like carbon sequestration (forests), biodiversity (wildlife), and clean water. We all know the importance of clean water, we want healthy wildlife and plant populations, and we understand the value of forests. But how exactly do you put a value on that, and how does Wall Street make money from it?" (12/28/21)
https://blog.heartland.org/2021/12/what-if-nature-were-for-sale/
-----
16) You Will Accept This Welfare Check Whether You Want It or Not
Source: Show-Me Institute
by David Stokes
"For people like me, who believe that the welfare system has a role but also has negative effects, the Section 8 program is far down on the list of programs to object to. It helps people who need housing by working with the private sector in a voluntary capacity. Landlords can choose to participate in it or not, according to federal rules. But that is not good enough for certain Missouri cities that won't be content until we are all forced onto the dole. Maplewood is the latest city to consider passing a 'source-of-income' law compelling landlords who operate in that city to accept Section 8 housing vouchers as payment. It would be illegal to decline to rent to people in the program, even though it is a federal program and federal law allows landlords to choose to participate or not." (12/28/21)
https://showmeinstitute.org/blog/regulation/you-will-accept-this-welfare-check-whether-you-want-it-or-not/
-----
17) Individualism Rightly Understood
Source: American Institute for Economic Research
by Garreth Bloor
"In Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis, Ludwig von Mises lays out the case against socialism and its varying forms. In focusing on human persons and their wide-ranging motives, Mises' methodology set him apart in 1922. Nearly a century later, the majority of mainstream economists still fail to appreciate the degree to which their discipline ought to rest on a more sophisticated view of human nature. Even as we might wish him to deploy a more nuanced morality in service of his arguments, Mises nonetheless helps us see the discipline's ongoing failure to comprehend the complexity of human action and the inspiration for socialist dreams. Mises asserted praxeology as the foundation of all the social sciences 'resting on the fundamental axiom that individual human beings act, that is, on the primordial fact that individuals engage in conscious actions toward chosen goals.'" (12/28/21)
https://www.aier.org/article/individualism-rightly-understood/
-----
18) The Federal Judiciary: Independence Without Accountability?
Source: Tenth Amendment Center
by Bob Fiedler
"Judicial supremacy was not dictated by the Constitution, it was permitted under the Constitution because there was no power that could prevent the institution with the last say -- the Supreme Court -- from telling the other branches of government what they were allowed, or not allowed, to do. In short, Brutus contended, judicial supremacy was a direct consequence of the failure of the Framers to institute some sort of checks and balances on the Supreme Court as had been instituted on all other parts of the federal government." (12/28/21)
https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2021/12/28/the-federal-judiciary-independence-without-accountability/
-----
19) Mindfulness Is What's Missing From the Political Arena
Source: Reason
by Aaron Ross Powell
"Perhaps the least controversial thing you can say about American politics is that it's awful and getting worse. Americans were divided before Trump, but his four years in office supercharged partisan animosity. Everyone has a theory about what's to blame for it. Both the left and the right like to point to social media, albeit for different reasons. Both blame traditional media as well, whether it's 'fake news' or Fox News. Both agree that politics is broken because the other guys broke it. Social media do highlight and promote political conflict and grandstanding. Newspapers do reflect the biases of their staffs. Cable news has largely replaced sober journalism with posturing-as-entertainment shows similar to professional wrestling. But these are symptoms, not causes. The deeper problem with American politics is how we think about it and how we put it to use." (12/28/21)
https://reason.com/2021/12/28/mindfulness-is-whats-missing-from-the-political-arena/
-----
20) The Cost of Engaging With the Miserable
Source: The Atlantic
by Charlie Warzel
"On the doom machine, feeling helpless and hopeless is easier than ever. Our politics, institutions, and reality itself seem fractured. Perhaps the only salve is to fight on the doom machine over who's to blame. Inevitably, this makes us feel worse instead of better. So why do we keep doing it? It seems that many of the extremely online are drawn to the doom, and that should make us concerned about the health and future of our public digital spaces. When journalists and academics talk about the morass of hate and lies online, they tend to focus on tech platforms, rightfully so. The platforms are immensely powerful, and their design can encourage radicalization and the spread of conspiracy theories, amplifying the most toxic forces in our culture. But online garbage (whether political and scientific misinformation or racist memes) is also created because there's an audience for it." (12/28/21)
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/12/twitter-facebook-misery-misinformation/621073/
-----
21) How International Aid Failed Africa and Made Poverty Worse
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Emmanuel Rincon
"The Zambian economist, Dambisa Moyo, wrote a book -- Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa -- to denounce how the hypocrisy of political correctness did nothing but continue to impoverish the African continent through international aid. ... In 1990 there were 280 million people living in extreme poverty in Africa; today that figure exceeds 430 million. ... In contrast to the situation in Africa, according to the World Bank, there were 1.9 billion people in extreme poverty worldwide in 1990, and today, that figure has decreased to 736 million people; in other words, while more than 1.1 billion people worldwide have emerged from extreme poverty in the last 30 years, the opposite trend has occurred in Africa, where the figure has increased by at least 150 million people." (12/28/21)
https://fee.org/articles/how-international-aid-failed-africa-and-made-poverty-worse/
-----
22) Gun Ownership Is Political Violence
Source: The American Conservative
by Andrew Cuff
"One of my neighbors has a bumper sticker: 'The 2nd Amendment isn't for hunting.' He's correct as a matter of constitutional law -- the Bill of Rights affirms the right to private gun ownership and, in effect, creates a form of distributed sovereignty that prevents the state from having a monopoly on force. In case after case, the Supreme Court has struck down attempts to limit this right, and seems poised to further expand gun rights next year. But pretending gun ownership is a privilege granted by government cedes too much ground. The right must unapologetically embrace the substance of the left's complaint that the 2nd Amendment endorses violence as pillar of American politics." (12/28/21)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/gun-ownership-is-political-violence/
-----
23) Time to look inward: Not all of Iran's problems are caused by the West
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Shireen Hunter
"Iran's leaders, especially the hardliners who have had the last word in all Iran's domestic and foreign policies, attribute their problems to the impact of U.S. sanctions. Clearly, sanctions have had a devastating effect on Iran's economy, while failing to produce change either in the regime or its behavior. Indeed, Washington has never been well-disposed towards Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and its policies towards Tehran have often been unwise and counter-productive. But Iran's hardliners never ask whether Iran's behavior might have contributed to U.S. hostility. Yet, an objective observer will recognize that their mutual enmity and its negative consequences for Iran have resulted in part from major flaws in the foundational principles of Tehran's foreign policy." (12/28/21)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2021/12/28/time-to-look-inward-not-all-of-irans-problems-are-caused-by-the-west/
-----
24) Lunatic With a Plan: Erdogan and Turkey's Economic Woes
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Tom Luongo
"Since the first assault on Turkey's finances in 2018, which I wrote about multiple times ... I've been the lone voice telling everyone that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a lunatic but he's a lunatic with a plan. That plan is to de-dollarize the economy of a valuable member of NATO geostrategically. Since the first shots across the bow by the Trump administration at Erdogan's toying with those powers east of the Bosporus (Russia, China and Iran) the Turkish lira has been the primary mode of attack against Erdogan." (12/28/21)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/lunatic-with-a-plan-erdogan-and-turkeys-economic-woes/
-----
25) Lost Opportunity: How the Clinton Administration Started a Cold War With a Democratic Russia
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ted Galen Carpenter
"There is little dispute that relations between the United States and Russia are now so hostile that they amount to a second cold war. The current situation is such a depressing contrast to the high hopes for a cordial bilateral relationship and the emergence of a stable, peaceful, and cooperative Europe that marked the demise of the Soviet Union three decades ago. Most Americans blame Moscow, but the United States and its NATO allies are largely responsible for the onset of the current, dangerous confrontation." (12/28/21)
https://original.antiwar.com/ted_galen_carpenter/2021/12/27/lost-opportunity-how-the-clinton-administration-started-a-cold-war-with-a-democratic-russia/
-----
26) The revolt against modernity
Source: spiked
by Brendan O'Neill
"I mainly feel sorry for those who still labour under the delusion that environmentalism is a radical worldview. Those who believe that warning of End Times as a consequence of ruthless capitalist excess is a socialist position. Those who think that wringing one's hands over the grotesque 'footprint' marauding humankind has left on this allegedly once-pristine planet is a good way to indict the globalist elites. Because 2021, with COP26 and all the rest, surely proved that the opposite is the case. It surely confirmed, beyond all reasonable doubt, that green thinking is in truth the new ideology of the ruling class, and that it has become a justification for rewinding modernity and lowering the aspirations of humankind." (12/28/21)
https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/12/28/the-revolt-against-modernity/
-----
27) The Zoom Class Gets Covid
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Jeffrey A Tucker
"The initial lockdowns had a strong class-based component. The working classes were assigned the job of delivering groceries, tending to the sick, driving the trucks filled with goods, keeping the lights on, and keeping the fuel running. The professional class, among whom were the people who pushed lockdowns in the name of disease avoidance/suppression, were assigned the job of staying home in their pajamas and staying safe. ... So it now seems obvious to me. This whole disaster would finally come to an end (or at least the end would begin) when it became obvious that the great strategy of class division and demarcation would fail to protect the Zoom class from infection. That day has finally arrived, with cases soaring in many parts of the country and hitting everyone of every class, whether they are being 'careful' and adhering to the 'mitigation measures" or not.'" (12/27/21)
https://brownstone.org/articles/the-zoom-class-gets-covid/
-----
28) If You Haven't Researched Arguments Disputing A Western Narrative, You Don't Understand The Issue
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
"Lately when people react with shock and indignation that I would dare to dispute a claim made by the western political/media class about an empire-targeted government, I've taken to simply asking them what reading they've done on the other side of the issue. What are some articles they've read arguing against the official western narrative about that government? ... Russia is engaging in aggressive provocations. Assad is using chemical weapons. There's a genocide in Xinjiang. Iran is developing nuclear weapons. Maduro is deliberately starving his people. Whatever's the Official Imperial Line of the Day about the Official Bad Guy of the Day. What I've found interesting about this exercise is that while I would've correctly predicted that those questioned had done zero research into the opposing viewpoints of the issue they're commenting on, I would probably not have predicted the brazenness with which they'll admit it." (12/27/21)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/12/27/if-you-havent-researched-arguments-disputing-a-western-narrative-you-dont-understand-the-issue/
-----
29) RICO Illustrates One Way Leviathan Grows
Source: EconLog
by Pierre Lemieux
"Like many other laws if not most laws, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) has been used for purposes far different from its professed original goal. Like other ways in which the state tends to grow into Leviathan, this is not a random event or a manifestation of the supposed 'law of unintended consequences.'" (12/27/21)
https://www.econlib.org/rico-illustrates-one-way-leviathan-grows/
-----
30) Socialism and liberty, part 1
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton
"We know that many Americans -- even some friends and neighbors -- love the idea of socialism. We know that others fear, hate, and oppose socialism. How does that fit in with the ideal of liberty? Of living free? But what is socialism? When you ask people what is it, you get all kinds of answers. And all kinds of reasons for their advocacy for or against it. Let's take a few minutes and see if we can sort this out and understand how it impacts our liberty and our freedoms." (12/27/21)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2021/12/27/socialism-and-liberty-part-1/
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
31) Free Talk Live, 12/28/21
Source: Free Talk Live
"Delta Karen spits on 80 year old man for not wearing a mask :: Pharmacist doesn't have information on the Covid vaccine :: Free bus fare in Albuquerque :: Way too much conversation about traffic lights :: Employers connecting with employees :: The new Matrix movie :: Show: 2021-12-28 Aria, Ian." [Flash audio or MP3] (12/28/21)
https://soundcloud.com/freetalklive/free-talk-live-2021-12-28
-----
32) Power Problems, 12/28/21
Source: Cato Institute
"Quantum Mind and Social Science." [various formats] (12/28/21)
https://www.cato.org/multimedia/power-problems/quantum-mind-social-science
-----
33) The Bryan Hyde Show, 12/28/21
Source: The Bryan Hyde Show
"Eric Peters from Eric Peters Autos joins me for a year-end retrospective. We talk about the good and bad of 2021 and what to watch for in 2022." [various formats] (12/28/21)
https://thebryanhydeshow.podbean.com/e/2021-december-28-the-bryan-hyde-show-hour-one/
-----
34) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 12/28/21
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
"Biden Surrenders on Covid -- Can We End Federal Mandates Now?" [Flash video] (12/28/21)
http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/biden-surrenders-on-covid-can-we-end-federal-mandates-now
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35) Conflicts Of Interest, episode 205
Source: Libertarian Institute
"Biden's Failures on Covid and Yemen." [various formats] (12/27/21)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/kyle/coi-205-bidens-failures-on-covid-and-yemen/
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